Joris-Karl Huysmans 
Against the Grain 

À rebours (translated
Against Nature or
Against the Grain ) is an 1884 novel by the French writer
Joris-Karl Huysmans . The narrative centers on a single character:
Jean des Esseintes , an eccentric, reclusive, ailing aesthete.




Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans  (5 February 1848 – 12 May 1907) was a French novelist and art critic who published his works as
Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel
À rebours (1884, published in English as
Against the Grain and as
Against Nature ). He supported himself by way of a 30-year career in the French civil service.